[Advaita-l] Re: Advaita-l Digest, Vol 1, Issue 29

[Sankaran Aniruddhan]

namaste,

> Not really.  Take any branch of knowledge, say chemistry.
> 
> Of course we know chemistry,  does it mean we should
> stop all research on chemistry, because we know chemistry ?
> 
> Do we say we don't know chemistry because research
> is still going on all over the world on chemistry?.
> 
> "Brahma vidyAm sarva vidyA pratiShTAm"
> 
> If this is true for a mundane subject such as chemistry,
> then it is necessarily true for Brahma-vidyA where the
> subject matter by definition is Infinite.

I think of it slightly differently. Chemistry is a subject
which involves interpretation of data obtained from
sensory perceptions. It is only such subjects which are
limited and imperfect due to apprehension through the
senses. On the other hand, Brahman is not an object of
sense perception. It cannot be compared to mundane
subjects, and neither can brahma-vidya be compared to
mundane knowledge.

> What we already know about God is miniscule.
> What is  yet to be known about God is always infinite.
> Otherwise, "ananta" becomes a mere word.

In advaita, it is brahman/atman which knows itself. So it
is not limited by this knowledge.

So, if brahman is always known only partially, why do only
some people get liberated? Is there a threshold of partial
knowledge of brahman which needs to be crossed before
liberation? If so, what is this threshold of knowledge,
and when and how is it reached? Where is this threshold
specified? Once this threshold is crossed, is there a
difference in the knowledge between different jivas? Since
the liberated jivas know brahman only partially, there
might be a difference in the brahman-knowledge of
different jivas, right?

Aniruddhan

Sruti smRti purANAnAm Alayam karuNAlayam
namAmi bhagavatpAda Sam.karam lokaSam.karam